Entertainment

"Halo" Studio to Release New Game on Multiple Consoles

Bungie, the video game development studio responsible for the monstrously popular Halo franchise, has signed a deal with publisher Activision to distribute a new game or series of games on multiple platforms. The new game or series will not be directly related to Halo because publisher Microsoft has a claim to that intellectual property.

Bungie worked exclusively on Halo games for Microsoft's Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles and Windows PCs for most of the last decade, helping the series of first-person shooter and real-time strategy titles sell 27 million copies by the end of 2009. Bungie has described the new game or series as "the next big action game universe." Nothing else is currently known about it.

Best known for the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero franchises, Activision is a multi-platform game publisher, meaning its games are almost never exclusive to one video game console. Bungie's executives talked up Activision's experience releasing on multiple platforms when explaining why they made the deal, so expect this new game or series to appear on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 at minimum — or their successors if the release is far enough away.

Notable video game industry analyst Michael Pachter expects the new Bungie property to sell at least 10 million units — high expectations in an industry in which two million sales is considered a significant success. Pachter also claims that the game is very far along in the development process, which means we could get our first glimpse of it at the big E3 video game conference in Los Angeles this June.

A New Chapter for Bungie

Shooting and martial arts action game Oni was the only game Bungie released outside of the Halo franchise in the past 10 years. It hit store shelves in 2001. Oni was developed by a distinct studio called Bungie West, however. Before the launch of Halo, Bungie was known for its Mac game development and the Marathon and Myth franchises.

Video games have changed dramatically since Bungie's last non-Halo game. They've changed the most in terms of game play, but here's a visual representation to give you a sense of how long 10 years is in the gaming world. First look at this screenshot of Oni, then look below for a screenshot from Bungie's 2010 release, Halo: Reach. We've come a long way in 10 years; will Bungie be able to make a hit from scratch in this totally different landscape?

Samuel Axon is a digital content producer in New York City. He has worked as an editor at Engadget, Mashable and the Joystiq network, and currently leads content strategy as Editorial Director at Sprout Social.

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